Rock City gets a timeframe for the Agent of Change Principle from State Planning Minister Matthew Guy

All the latest in Australia's indie music scene with a focus on Melbourne...because that's where this is being signed, sealed and delivered.

Drinking Up The Spoils “Stay hydrated, stay intoxicated, stay motivated,” Chet Faker told the crowd at Falls Festival in Lorne. Sound advice. It’s fair to assume Collingwood’s swarthy soultronic crooner will be blowing the froth off a few cold ones today with the news his Thinking In Textures EP has gone Gold with 35 thousand copies sold. Ma-hooo-sive.

Congrats to Monsieur Faker aka Nick Murphy and all the great folk at Remote Control Records who have helped him to this point in his career.

Murphy is being elusive at the moment but Twitter research tells us the photo shoot has been completed for his as yet untitled debut album, due in April. It will include the swerving, up-tempo, beat-speckled jam 1998 which he debuted at Falls Festival to such rapturous applause it made a Unicorn dressed in a sparkly rainbow onesie riding atop someone's shoulders punch the air with a crutch. F’real.

This is Faker and band doing Cigarettes and Chocolate at Falls Festival. 6 views don’t lie! It’s worth watching him head-bop on the big screen, moving double-time to the music; that’s some disco discombobulation.

Big news on the Chet front in the next fortnight. Watch this bass.HINT: It has something to do with the Infinity Prism tour he did with Flume. Also, his Drop The Game collaboration with Australia’s Fly-Lo, Harley Streten, is number two on AIR’s Single charts. Sn(g)narly clip:

Vote for ol’ mate Chet in Triple J’s Hottest 100 by visiting his Facebook page and following his brief instructions.

Law-Talking GuyRock City spoke to the State Minister for Planning Matthew Guy about this pesky, long overdue Agent of Change Principle which will put the onus on developers to soundproof new properties close to live music venues.

On December 12 last year, Minister Guy stated in Parliament “We will do this [implement the Agent of Change Principle] because no other government in Victoria has had the guts to do this. Whether it is at the Palace or other live music venues, Mr [Edward] O’Donohue [the Minister for Liquor and Gaming Regulation] and I will do that work over the summer period and the coming weeks to ensure that live music remains one of Melbourne’s great assets.”

Yesterday’s interview gained the following five pieces of intel: 1.“We are looking at implementing the Agent of Change Principle well before the election in seven months, it’ll be more like six or seven weeks. It needs to be signed off and gazetted.” QUOTE!

2.“I live on a street in Preston with a live music venue six doors up and I accept that there’s noise. It’s a part of life. If you move near Melbourne Airport you’ll expect airport noise.”

3.“We will do a Planning Scheme Amendment which will cover a number of councils when it’s ready and it will be a regulatory change. I’m expecting a brief of the details in the next few days to make sure it’s right. I’m going to sit down with Ed O’Donohue and go through it.”

4.“You can’t try and close down live music venues after moving into the city. I hope the City of Yarra takes advice from the City of Melbourne. There’s no use blaming the operators or the police, these people knew there was a live music venue near their house when they moved in. There’s 4.5 million in the city, if you don’t like noise, don’t move to the inner city. As for the Metro, sorry, Palace Theatre site, I’ve said I’d love to see a W Hotel in Melbourne but the proposal being put forward was off kilter for that site. We want the restrictions to be adhered to. I don’t want another Windsor Hotel debacle.”

5.“We are looking at a local, not a state-wide plan, there’s no use having the Agent of Change Principle in the Alpine Shire council or the Wimmera, it’s for urban councils.”

SLAM co-founder Helen Marcou has previously stated mere local council implementation is untenable. Marcou says “next week I’m taking the policy team from the Live Music Roundtable with me to discuss the proposed changes with Minister Guy. I've got our planning barrister attending; so good back-up.”

Now’s the time to see Minister Guy’s gutsiness. A swift resolution please! G&D!!

Sheer Savagery A regional original, Cash Savage and the Last Drinks are gearing up for a four-state Golden Wolves tour that will stop off in Kyneton. As for the very Andrew WK photo (below)?

“I would love to tell you a more glamorous story about drunken brawls over beautiful women but truth is I was riding my bike down Nicholson St at 3am after drinking at The Oldy. “Just before the tram tracks grabbed my tyre and threw me over my handlebars, I was thinking: ‘I should ride down the tram tracks all the time, I can ride as fast as I want!’ The stack smashed up my chin, lip and nose and moved one of my teeth. Worst. Hangover. Ever,” she manages to say.

Drive The Point Home PBS Drive Live is back and as usual they’ve locked in some stunning, bang-up-for-it acts.

Between 5-7pm from February 3-7 the PBS studios will host Hiatus Kaiyote, The Stevens, Courtney Barnett, The Murlocs, The Harpoons, Bad Vision, Forces and DD Dumbo. Get there early for free Coopers too. Not a member? Rectify this immediately.

REMington Steele Sure there’s a lot of hoo-ha and overdue mudslinging directed at Triple J this week (including this excellent piece by James Young) but their talent searching mechanism Unearthed does a damn good job.

2013 Triple J Unearthed Artist of the Year, REMi hits the ground sprinting in 2014 with the release of a new single Movin' on Friday 7th February followed by a national run of shows supported by N’fa Jones.

Five for the head 'Hive You gonna go to Big Day Out? Not many are. It would be nice if they could sell a few more tickets, it’s one festival that deserves to come out of these dark days to be successful once more. After Blur dropped out, Beady Eye (yawwwn), The Deftones (yeah OK but really not a clincher) and The Hives (now you’re talking) were announced as replacements. Rock City interviewed the head howler and picked his five best answers.

35 year old Howlin' Pelle Almqvist had a rollercoaster year of ups and downs in 2013 but now he’s feeling reinvigorated and ready to bring his ball-tearing Swedish band to Australia for the Big Day Out…dressed in Mariachi outfits and trademark slick suits. Truly.

1.When you found out there was an offer for The Hives to play Big Day Out 2014 did you do a victory dance? Were there star jumps and flying roundhouse kicks? “It’s all I ever do. I’m still doing them right now. The offer came in for the Big Day Out and we didn’t even have to think about it, we’ve done it once before and everyone knows it’s one of the best festivals to play.”

2.Will The Hives be better than Blur? “Of course, why would we be worse?” [As for competition with other bands] I see some bands do something on stage and think ‘DAMN IT, why didn’t I think of that!?’ We don’t see bands as competition offstage…but sometimes bands talk shit about us in the press and we dislike them. And then we want to destroy them. Most of the time it’s friendly offstage and unfriendly onstage. That’s just business.”

3. Gratuitous IKEA reference, Will you be using an Allen key to dismantle your opposition at BDO like Deftones, The Drones and Primus? “Not an Allen key. We’ll be using a wrench, it’s a Swedish invention. It’ll be easier to get one. I always love a good live band, there’s not enough of us (laughs). I’ll have to check out The Drones.”

4. Being avid surfers, will you be getting some waves down here? “Hopefully, anything is better than going surfing in Sweden. Niklas [Pelle’s brother] is the best surfer in the band.”

5. The best Swedish joke was told to me by a drunken Norwegian at Roskilde Festival in 2004 at 7am. It went exactly like this 'What do you find in the bottom of a Swedish pool? A NO-SMOKING SIGN. hahahahHAHahahahah *cough* hahahah *hack hahahaha *hash* hahahaha.’ What’s your best Swedish joke about the Norwegians? “Oh there are so many. You know why Norwegians go motorbiking with a sleeping bag? Because they lie down in the corner.”

THIS WEEK'S MUST SEE THREE 1. Matmos, Always Anybody who’s worked with Björk is all right in my book. Matmos, the kooky, filibusting Baltimore duo turned knobs on Vespertine and Medulla and have nine of their own albums to choose tunes from on this, their debut tour of Oz. ExperiMENTAL guys.

2. Die! Die! Die! Craig David claimed he was Born To Do It but where is he now? Waiting for Artful Dodger to return his texts, that’s where. Die! Die! Die! are a NZ proto-punk band four albums into their career that like ripping people’s faces off (figuratively speaking) in short sharp bursts. They were born to do it. Love of Diagrams and ESC support nicely/nastily.

3. Pete Murray & The Stonemasons I can often be a bit too cool for school in this little patch of internet. Soz and apoz. This week Pete Murray is in and maybe your eyes have just chanced upon his name and you’re like “I love that album Feeler” and guess what he’s playing it in full with his original band. Nobody's gonna judge you, go and look at his guns and sing along to the choruses and have some fun.